Those involved in the management of animals have long used manual gates to corral and contain animals such as cattle, horses and pigs on a desired side of a fence dividing a pasture, paddock or the like. The manual gates are installed in an opening in a fence line and generally require human effort and attention to permit the animals to pass through the opening from one side of the fence to the other side of the fence. Once an animal has moved through the opening, the gate must be manually closed to prevent the animal from returning to the original side of the fence. This corralling operation requires considerable human effort and time.
While there are several one way gate apparatuses which allow the movement of animals in one direction but prevent movement of animals in the opposite direction in the prior art, they possess numerous disadvantages and deficiencies. Of the several, known, prior art one way gate apparatuses, those disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,079,711, 3,803,763, 4,953,323 and 5,081,958 are the most relevant to the subject matter of the invention disclosed herein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,711 discloses a one way animal gate comprising a chute having two vertical side walls, each side walls being equipped with an upright post, a tube pivotally secured to a respective upright post by a bracket and hinge pin, springs for urging the tubes to a closed position, and stop lugs for limiting the opening movement of the tubes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,763 discloses a one way deer gate for installation in an opening of a fence, the deer gate comprising a pair of vertical posts, upper and lower horizontal frame bars, a pair of vertical side bars secured to a respective vertical post, a plurality of spring tines secured to each vertical side bars, a plurality of spring tines secured to the lower frame bar, and a spring tine secured to the upper, horizontal, frame bar, with the limited opening afforded by the ends of the spring side tines and the obstacles presented by the outer ends of the upper and lower tines preventing passage of the deer in one direction, but allowing passage of the deer in the opposite direction. Each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,953,323 and 5,081,958 discloses a one way animal gate for installation in an opening of a fence, the gate including a smooth, inclined, bottom surface surrounded by two sides extending upwardly from the bottom surface and depending upon the contour of the land to allow movement of an animal from one side of a fence to the other side but preventing movement of the animal in the reversed direction.
The present invention overcome the numerous disadvantages and deficiencies of the prior art animal gate apparatuses as well as provides several advantages thereover in that no human effort is required to open and close the gate, the parts comprising the gate apparatus is not likely to injure the animal, no particular contour or slope of the land is required at the opening in the fence where the gate is installed, and the one way gate apparatus of the present invention is easily installed, durable and made of relatively inexpensive materials. The apparatus of the present invention, once in place, allows an animal to readily move from one side of a fence to the other side of the fence if such movement is desired by the owner of the animal.